‘Washington Taxes You and Lights Your Hard-Earned Money on Fire': Gov. Sanders Responds to Biden’s Address

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers the Republican response to the State of the Union address by President Joe Biden, on Feb. 7, 2023. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

In her response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Feb. 7, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders came down heavily on the administration’s tax policies burdening Americans who are already struggling with decades-high inflation.

“In the radical left’s America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire. But you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves,” Sanders said in her response. Businesses in the United States are set to face a bigger federal tax burden in 2023 due to Democrat policies and the phasing out of Republican tax overhauls, combined with an expected raise in corporate minimum tax for billion-dollar companies.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) included several changes which will result in businesses facing higher taxes. In addition, some of the temporary provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) enacted under the Trump administration are set to get phased out in 2023. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the total effect of these two developments would result in additional tax increases of $115 billion for businesses.

In his State of the Union address, Biden called the current tax system “simply unfair,” while claiming that 55 of America’s biggest companies made $40 billion in profits and paid zero federal income taxes.

Owing to new laws implemented by the administration, companies will now have to pay a minimum tax of 15 percent, the president stated.

The new corporate minimum tax charges a 15 percent levy on American businesses that make more than $1 billion in book income in a year for three consecutive years. As a result, the average effective tax rate on corporate income is expected to rise from 18.7 percent to 19.3 percent.

The corporate minimum tax is expected to hit businesses involved in sectors like real estate and mining. Some experts foresee the policy to negatively affect company earnings this year.

According to an Aug. 1st post by the National Taxpayer Union Foundation (NTUF), an alternate minimum tax was in effect between 1986 and 2017. During this period, the manufacturing sector was disproportionately affected, it noted. Moreover, revenues from taxes were relatively low.

Meanwhile, Americans have been suffering from elevated inflation under the Biden administration. When Biden became president in January 2021, annual inflation was only 1.4 percent. In 2022, annual inflation equaled or exceeded 6.5 percent for every single month.

US retail gas prices, which were at $2.48 per gallon on Jan. 25, 2021, were at $3.55 per gallon as of Feb. 6, rising by 43 percent under Biden’s watch.

In a commentary at The Epoch Times on June 29, 2022, Stephen Moore, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, highlighted the supply-chain problem created by Biden.

“First, Biden declared war on the American fossil fuel industry, so it began to contract output. Prices soared. Then he appointed regulators who made anti-business climate change rules that disrupted commerce flows.”

“And, finally, he appointed people to key positions in his administration who were woefully unqualified for the task at hand,” Moore writes, while pointing to Pete Buttigieg being put in charge of transportation.

During the cargo shipping crisis, Buttigeig went on paternity leave and took no practical steps to ease the jam in the shipping ports.

Hiring 87,000 IRS Agents

In August last year, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act which set aside billions of dollars for hiring 87,000 Internal Revenue Service agents. Republicans had strongly opposed the move, raising concerns that the additional agents allegedly would target families and small businesses.

In January, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the funding. “House Republicans just voted unanimously to repeal the Democrats’ army of 87,000 IRS agents,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at the time. “This was our very first act of the new Congress, because government should work for you, not against you.”

On Jan. 10, Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-Ga.) introduced H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act, which aims to replace the current tax code with a national consumption tax known as the fair tax. The measure would effectively end the IRS and income taxes.

“Instead of adding 87,000 new agents to weaponize the IRS against small-business owners and middle America, this bill will eliminate the need for the department entirely by simplifying the tax code,” said Carter, according to a press release on Jan. 10.

While speaking during an event last month, Biden made it clear that he has no intention to support any Republican bill aimed at ending the IRS or cutting funding for the agency. “Let me be clear: If any of these bills happen to reach my desk, I will veto them,” he said, according to Breitbart. “Any of them.”